The Return of Rachael
by Sabulana
Summary: For EcoJak. Sequel to Rachael. Rachael returns...except she never really went away, it seems... RikuSora.


A/N: This likely won't make sense unless you've read my other story, Rachael. If you haven't read that, go do it now. I swear, this story will soon be here when you get back! grins

This is a rather late birthday fic for my dear Ecojak. (Go read her awesome stories! I command you!) Sorry about the lateness, Eco. I was…distracted. Life stuff, y'know. XD But at least it's done!

Dislclaimers: I own nothing but the plot.

Warnings: shounen ai, cross-dressing

* * *

Riku had a deep, dark secret. Something so secret he had not even told Sora, his best friend since forever and boyfriend since six months ago. Absolutely no one knew and Riku was sure he'd commit murder then suicide if anyone found out. 

And that secret was this:

Riku, supposed alpha-male of the Destiny Island teenagers, liked to wear dresses. And skirts. And other girly clothes. But mostly dresses, usually those made with light, floaty materials that reached to his knees. His particular favourite was a pretty green summer dress that brought out his eyes. It had been a lucky find, the thought, twirling in front of the bathroom mirror, secure in the knowledge that his parents had gone out for the evening and would not find him.

By day, Riku acted as he always had, hanging out with Sora and Kairi and sometimes the others too. The only recent change (as far as they knew) was that Riku and Sora kissed a lot more often now. Kairi never complained, being the shounen ai fangirl that she was.

But by night, when everyone else was asleep, Riku would lock his door and pull out the suitcase full of girl's clothes he kept hidden under the bed. The collection had built up over time during super secret shopping trips. He still had the dress he wore as 'Rachael', since Kairi complained that the top was stretched a little. "And besides," she had giggled. "You looked good in it!"

Riku had blushed heavily but covered it up by pretending to be mad at her. He had chased her around her room, inwardly glad to keep the dress.

Now, clad in the green dress, Riku was terrified of anyone finding out his secret. Of course, the simple thing to do would be to stop dressing up and throw out the clothes but he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

If his parents found out, they would freak, he was sure. His friends would laugh. And Sora…Sora would no doubt think he was a freak and leave him. Sure, he had been wearing a dress when they had first started dating, but that was an entirely different situation than the one the silver-haired teen was currently in.

Sometimes he wondered if that blitzball to the head really had affected his mind after all.

Glancing at the clock, Riku saw he had quarter of an hour before his parents returned from the restaurant. Reluctantly, he returned to his room and shimmied out of the dress, getting ready for bed. He put the dress away carefully and slid the suitcase back under the bed in time to hear the car doors slam outside the house five minutes early.

Hurrying, Riku switched on his television and games console. When his parents came up the stairs a couple of minutes later, it looked to them as though their son had been playing videogames all night.

"Have you even thought about studying?" asked his mother, giving him an amused look.

Riku hadn't, so he changed the subject quickly. "Did you have a nice time?"

The move wasn't lost on either parent, long used to such tactics. After all, they themselves had taught it to Riku, albeit unwittingly at the time.

"We'll take that as a no then. And yes, we did," replied his mother fondly.

"We're going to bed now so keep the noise down," his father said.

"Yes, Dad," replied Riku, dutifully turning the volume down. "I don't think I'll stay up much longer anyway. I'll just finish this level and call it a night."

His parents gave him identical loving smiles and bade him goodnight as they returned to their room.

While outwardly Riku returned their smile, inwardly he cringed to think of how those smiles would change if they ever discovered what he had really been up to in their absence.

Once he heard their bedroom door close, Riku completed the level he was on, blasting his way through the last few enemies to reach his target and complete the mission before saving and switching it off. Instead of going to bed however, Riku slid a hand under his mattress and pulled out a notebook.

While not a journal in the strictest sense, the notebook was just as important to Riku as if it were. Few of the pages were filled with his thoughts and feelings but instead it contained a scoreboard of his contests against Sora, a few carefully laid plans for pranks or other important events and several photos of him and Sora together.

Since Riku had yet to tell his parents of the latest step in his relationship with the spiky haired boy, these stayed out of sight though Riku would much rather have had them on display.

For now though, Riku ignored the photos and turned to his latest scheme. It was a plan for another shopping trip, a special one because instead of pretending to buy clothes for an imaginary girlfriend, Rachael would be buying clothes for herself.

Riku's parents were going away for a week to celebrate their wedding anniversary. That meant a week alone in the house.

Well, until Sora came over, but he would not be coming until the day after they left. Riku had already made arrangements where his beloved boyfriend was concerned. The silver haired boy had told him and Kairi that he had to help his parents make last minute preparations for leaving and would be busy all day the day his parents actually left. Sora and Kairi had bought the lie, leaving Riku with a faint guilty feeling in the back of his mind that was overridden by the excitement of finally stepping outside as Rachael again.

So far everything was going according to plan, but Riku would not stop going over the plan and refining it until the day itself. Once he was done with that, Riku finally took out the photos, something he did every night.

The first photo had been completely unexpected. He and Sora had been lying side by side on the beach on the island. Sora had said something Riku found utterly cute and had rolled over to kiss him. As their lips had met, there was the click-whirr of Selphie's new camera and the girl herself leapt out of the bushes, grinning like a maniac before running for her life.

The perky brunette had presented them each with a copy of the picture a few days later. Ever since, she and Kairi both carried cameras with them to capture the perfect 'Kodak moments' between the two boys. Riku and Sora each had copies of every photo taken. Riku had rolled his eyes at their sappiness but secretly loved the photos because it meant he could look at Sora while he was not there.

The silver haired boy ran a finger down the side of Sora's face in a picture that showed Riku hugging his blue-eyed boyfriend from behind while they sat on the beach.

After a few minutes, Riku replaced everything under his mattress, switched off the light and went to sleep.

The time until his parents' departure seemed to crawl by but at last, Riku was waving them off one chilly, pale dawn. As soon as their car turned the corner, Riku ran back inside and fetched his notebook.

'_Step one. See parents off. Check,_' he thought, putting a tick in the margin next to it. '_Next, step two. Breakfast._'

After all, there was little point in hurrying at the moment. The shops wouldn't be open for a few more hours so Riku had given himself half an hour to spend on breakfast.

However, excited as he was, the teenager all but inhaled his cereal in about ten minutes and ran upstairs to get ready.

First, Riku showered using his mother's shower gel and shampoo. Then he donned the clothes he had prepared: a sky blue summer dress with a small slit on the left side and a pair of small-heeled shoes. He had a white jacket to wear over the top when he eventually went out. For now though, the silver haired boy had plenty of time left to spare.

After making sure his outfit looked alright, Riku went into the bathroom to search for his mother's make up. He found some left in the cabinet above the sink and set about applying it. Knowing he was inexpert at applying make up, the green eyed boy had given himself plenty of time to perfect it.

By the time Riku stepped out the front door (after carefully checking to make sure no one was around), he looked very convincing, if a little flat-chested, being as unsure as he was how to get a realistic look. When he reached the shops, it was still early enough for few people to be around – a good thing since he wanted to avoid as many people as possible on his first day out as Rachael (while not pretending to have amnesia, that is).

Somehow, it was easier and less nerve-wracking when he was secure in the knowledge that he was just playing a prank on Sora. Now that Riku knew he liked wearing girl's clothes more than society said he should, the teenage boy was a bag of nerves.

However, after wandering around a few shops, Riku began to relax. Crowds began to gather in the shopping district as time wore on and nobody seemed to realise the pretty silver-haired girl was really a pretty silver-haired boy.

* * *

Elsewhere, Sora was utterly bored. Normally he spent his days with Riku but his boyfriend was busy. The spiky brunet boy flopped back on the sands and pouted at the sky.

"Aw, missing Riku?" teased Kairi, appearing above him.

"I'm bored," moaned Sora. "Entertain me."

Kairi giggled and sat down next to him. "There's not much to do today, is there? Tidus and Wakka are at Blitzball practice all day for the tournament, Riku's helping his parents and I've seen no sign of Selphie today."

"So what do you want to do?" asked Sora.

"I don't know. What do you want to do?" replied Kairi, with a cheeky grin.

Sora rolled over to face her and turned his puppy-eyes pout up to full power. "Kairiiii…"

The red head glanced at him and turned away. "It can't work if I don't look!" she cried, screwing her eyes tight shut.

Beside her, Sora whimpered.

Kairi put her hands over her ears. "Tra la la, I can't hear you!" she singsonged.

The boy next to her didn't change his expression at all so when Kairi finally gave into the urge to look at him, she received a full blast of the Super Cute Sora Pout™.

"You wanna go for ice cream?" asked the redhead, finally admitting defeat.

"Alright," replied Sora, smiling triumphantly.

This was how they found themselves wandering through the shopping district with an ice cream cone each an hour later. Sora licked his Triple Chocolate Supreme (chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce and chocolate sprinkles) a little distractedly while Kairi gave her Strawberry Delight (strawberry ice cream with a strawberry on top) more attention, preferring it not to melt and dribble over her fingers.

"You're still thinking about Riku," the redhead said when she had finished enough to not worry about sticky fingers. "Want to take him some ice cream later?"

Sora nodded. "I'm sure he'd like that. Probably be glad to see us too."

The two teenagers wandered from shop to shop for a while, finishing what was left of their cones when Sora suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Riku definitely said he was busy today, didn't he?" he questioned.

"Yeees," replied Kairi slowly, giving him a strange look. She and Sora had both been there when Riku had told them this after all.

"And there aren't many teenagers on Destiny Islands with silver hair, are there? In fact, I think Riku is the only one at the moment," Sora continued.

"Yeah," replied Kairi. "A few older, a few younger and Riku right in the middle. Why am I getting a pop quiz on your boyfriend?"

"Because I think he lied to us," answered Sora simply.

Kairi blinked. "You seem…very calm about that. Wouldn't most people be going off it right now?" she asked, wondering if Sora would just explain already.

"I can see why he did it though," said Sora. "I can't hold it against him but I wish he'd told me the truth. I wouldn't have minded."

"Minded what?" asked Kairi, frustrated and thoroughly confused.

Sora nodded to a place behind her. Curiously, the redhead turned and her jaw dropped.

"That can't be…" she whispered.

Though he was wearing a dress and makeup, Sora and Kairi still recognised their friend.

"Come on, let's go say hi," said Sora with a mischievous smile.

Riku was enjoying himself. He'd bought a couple of new tops and a pair of shoes so far. Currently he was on a quest to find a skirt to complete the new ensemble.

The cross-dressing teen stopped in a shop he'd been in with Kairi before and began browsing the racks for the perfect skirt.

"You know, I think this one would look nice on you," said a very familiar voice behind him.

Riku jumped violently and spun around, face already turning tomato red. "S-Sora!"

Sora gave him a cheerful smile. "Hello, Rachael! We weren't expecting to see you today."

Riku gave him a sheepish smile. "Life's full of surprises."

"I'll say," replied Kairi, appearing seemingly out of no where behind him to rake through his bags. "Wow, nice shoes! Did they have any in my size?"

"Uh…uh, I-I think so," Riku stammered, feeling very overwhelmed. "So, uh…what brings you out shopping?"

Sora shrugged. "Boredom, mostly. And ice cream."

"We were going to bring you some later but I guess we can go to the ice cream parlour together later," Kairi told him with a smile.

Riku smiled widely, realising this was their way of letting him know they accepted him without revealing his secret in public. "Yeah, okay."

"So, what about this skirt then?" Sora held up the garment he had chosen before sneaking up on his cross-dressing boyfriend. The skirt in question was short, but not quite as short as a miniskirt. It was made of light denim and had a pattern of yellow daisies on the side.

"Uh…" Riku blinked, surprised. "Yeah, that's nice."

Sora frowned. "Don't sound so shocked." He pouted. "So, what exactly are you after anyway?"

"Just something to complete a new outfit." Riku held up the bags in his hand.

Kairi took that as an invitation to poke through them again to find the tops. "Ooh…damn, you have good taste," she commented.

"Thank you," muttered Riku, turning faintly pink. He gave Kairi and Sora a description of what he had in mind and the two of them had a contest to see who could find something suitable first.

Surprisingly, Sora was the one who found the skirt. Riku had a hard time suppressing his surprise – and failed miserably, if the hurt look on Sora's face was anything to go by.

"Sorry, but we don't expect you to have, well…a good taste in clothes," said Kairi apologetically as they left the shop.

Riku had the tact not to say anything lest he be denied kisses later. Of course, he was not sure he'd still be getting kisses later after keeping his cross-dressing a secret from his beloved boyfriend. In all the years they'd been friends, Riku had found it hard not to share everything with Sora. He usually caved and spilled the beans after a few days, a week at most. Six months though, was a long time and he knew Sora would be hurt to find out this way even if he was fine with the fact that his boyfriend was a transvestite.

To try to make it up to Sora, they let him drag them to the ice cream parlour as though they hadn't already agreed to go. They each ordered their favourites, Sora playing gentleman and carrying their bowls over to their booth.

"You wouldn't think he just had some not half an hour ago, would you?" said Kairi conversationally as Sora scooped a huge spoonful into his mouth.

"If I didn't know his so well, yes," replied Riku.

Kairi wanted to ask a million questions of Riku, starting with _"Why didn't you tell us earlier?"_ to _"So, what's the appeal in wearing dresses?"_ but refrained. After all, Riku had done his best to look like a convincing girl and to ask those questions in public would entirely ruin that for him. The red head didn't want to do or say anything that would cause her friend to repress something about himself.

Their talk instead, consisted of "So, have you done that assignment yet?" asked by Kairi. Sora, rather predictably, hadn't started and Riku, also predictably, offered to help him. Kairi resisted the urge to squeal at their cuteness and snapped a picture instead, an act that went ignored since both boys were used to it by now.

Afterwards, they wandered towards Riku's house. They would have hurried, both Sora and Kairi wanting answers as soon as possible, but Riku's shoes were beginning to hurt.

"At last, a boy who understands the pain," Kairi crowed triumphantly once they were on a deserted street – though still keeping her voice down lest the wrong ears hear.

The first thing Riku did when he got home was take off the shoes, even before the door was unlocked. He stood to the side of the front door after handing his keys to Sora and pulled them off, unable to help the relieved sigh once his feet were free. He took them upstairs, not entirely comfortable sitting in the front room where he still felt, despite the fact that it wouldn't happen this week, that his parents would walk in and demand to know why their son was sitting in a dress and his two best friends seemed utterly unaffected by it.

He'd left the suitcase of clothes open on the bed. Kairi immediately began rifling through it until she found the pink dress on the bottom. "Heh, I always wondered if you did actually keep it."

"Yeah, well…I have fond memories regarding that dress," said Riku quietly. He looked at Sora, who was stood off to one side, regarding Riku seriously.

Kairi saw the look and knew Riku would probably want to talk to Sora alone. "You know, I have chores to do at home. Tidy my room and all that," she said. "Riku, I'll quiz you later, okay?" she said. "I'll see myself out. Bye, boys!"

They gave her half-heated farewells, too busy focussing on each other.

Sora was the one who broke the gaze first. He moved over to the bed and picked up the pink dress by the shoulder strap. "You've got quite the collection…Riku. Or should I call you Rachael when you're dressed like that?" he asked a little sombrely.

Riku fixed his eyes on his feet. "You can call me either." He paused for a breath. "Sora, I'm sorry. I meant to tell you, I swear. I just…got so scared you'd leave me, that you wouldn't want me anymore."

Sora dropped the dress. "You're an idiot."

That made Riku look up with a hurt expression. "Sora?"

Sora glared, the angriest Riku had ever seen him. "You were wearing a dress when we started dating, remember? And I said you looked good in it more than once! Where the hell did you get the idea that I didn't mean it? And that I'd reject you for cross-dressing?"

Riku was temporarily speechless but he tried anyway. "I-I…Sora…"

As easily as it had come, the cross expression was gone, replaced by a wide grin. "Silly Riku." He crossed the room and poked his boyfriend's nose. "You worry too much. I'm never going to leave you."

Riku sighed and offered a half-smile. "I guess I was a bit stupid to worry about what you'd think. But you can't blame me for being scared of what other people would think."

"Not as scared as you were of my reaction if you went out like that," replied Sora, looking Riku up and down.

Feeling self conscious, Riku stepped away and closed the suitcase, moving it on to the floor. "Do you want me to get changed?" he asked.

"No, I think you can stay like that," said Sora.

Something in his voice made Riku turn to check his boyfriend was alright. Sora was wearing a flushed expression, which changed to a devious little smile when he licked his lips. Without warning, Sora took two steps forward and pushed Riku over so he landed on his back on the bed. Sora climbed over him, straddling his legs.

"I think you can mostly definitely stay like that…" he murmured, dipping his head to kiss Riku. A hand slid up Riku's thigh. "So," the brunet boy began with another devious smile. "Does the cross-dressing also apply to underwear?"

Riku smirked. "Why don't you find out for yourself?"

And Sora proceeded to do just that.

* * *

A/N: It took four attempts to get the sort of ending I want. I just couldn't get it. But at last, this is finished. I may do more Rachael stories too, where Riku's parents find out but it'll probably end up angst-filled. I want to find some way of inserting Sora's parents too… I may do a side-story type thing involving them… I have this image in my head of Sora's parents being really cool, y'see. Riku's parents are a bit stricter though. 

Anyway, leave a review please!

Oh, and for the record, I have no idea when Sora got so dominant either. I also have no doubt Riku's gonna turn the tables soon. is resisting writing about what happens next in order to not get it removed


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